Ben Affleck and Matt Damon‘s Artists Equity has only been around for three years, but in that span the company has created a number of starry projects designed to create more equity for the artists that actually create them (hence the name). But after bouncing around between distributors and taking time to find a home for some of their more ambitious projects, they’ve now settled down and tied the knot with a studio.
Artists Equity has entered into an overall theatrical feature film deal with Sony Pictures, a three-year deal that will see Sony finance and theatrically distribute globally anything that Affleck and Damon’s company develops and produces. Artists Equity will also have the option to co-finance individual projects.
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The company was founded in response to giving artists a larger share of streaming profits, but they’ve now landed with a studio in Sony that will commit to theatrical releases for all of their titles and does not have a streamer of its own. No projects under the current deal were announced just yet.
“Artists Equity, in the short span of its existence, has proven remarkably adept at developing and producing high quality commercial films,” said Tom Rothman, Chairman & CEO of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group. “This is not a surprise to me as I have known the two creative ‘Pros from Dover’ for many years and always admired their smarts, talent, and moxie. Now that Ben and Matt and their team have set their sights firmly on the high bar of the theatrical market, Sony is lucky as hell to be partnering with them. We look forward to making a bunch of hit films together.”
Affleck added in a statement: “It’s an enormously meaningful landmark for Artists Equity to be making films for theatrical release with Sony Pictures and in particular with Tom Rothman, with whom Matt and I go back more than 20 years. Tom has both a deep and abiding love for movies and an understanding of and appreciation for how they are made. I can’t think of a better partner than Sony, which is fully in on the theatrical experience, as Artists Equity seeks to make films expressly meant to be seen in the cinema, with an audience. It’s an honor to make films for the magical dark room where we come together with strangers to project our innermost secrets onto a screen, surrendering to a story together, agreeing to share the same flickering dream. I’m grateful for the opportunity to bring movies to a global audience, with the entire expert Sony team.”
To date, the majority of Artists Equity’s releases have been streaming exclusives, and that will be true for some of their upcoming features. Up next for the studio is “RIP,” which is a Netflix action film starring Damon, Affleck, Teyana Taylor, and Scott Adkins and is directed by Joe Carnahan. Netflix is also releasing the next film to be directed by Affleck, “Animals,” in which he also stars alongside Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, and Kerry Washington. The studio’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” an adaptation of the Broadway musical directed by Bill Condon and starring Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna, and Tonatiuh, is being released by Lionsgate.
Of their prior releases, Amazon MGM used the company’s first film “Air” as its test balloon of sorts to see how theatrical could bolster the eventual release of something on streaming down the road. Though the movie carried a $90 million production budget, it also brought in that much in its theatrical run and proved a streaming hit as well. Only “Small Things Like These” with Cillian Murphy and “The Accountant 2” have also gotten theatrical runs, while “The Instigators” and “Unstoppable” were streaming exclusives.
On Sony’s end though, it consistently puts the company in business with major stars like Affleck and Damon at a time when theatrical depends on starry, event films.
